


A Golden Cage

by Herbeloved82



Category: Black Sails
Genre: BDSM scenes in future chapters, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 02:54:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17634674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herbeloved82/pseuds/Herbeloved82
Summary: Captain Flint finds his lost love again, but they are both changed men. Will they be able to find the way to each other or are they going to be parted for good?





	A Golden Cage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pradelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pradelle/gifts), [cinelitchick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinelitchick/gifts).



James couldn’t believe it. After so long, after so many years and so much pain, after so many tears shed in memory of the true love of his life, after all the blood he spilled on the ground and in the seven seas to avenge Thomas Hamilton, he was back in his arms. 

Arms that changed during the years. James wasn’t the same man who found love in an idealistic and romantic lord in London. His mind, like his body, wasn’t the same anymore. 

To see Thomas with a hoe in his hands, working the soil like a commoner, caused James to stop. He needed a moment to gain control over the rage he felt blossoming in his body. He remembered how soft and delicate Thomas’ hands had been. He was a scholar and a poet, a gentle soul made to be worshipped and adored, not to be forced into slavery. 

Time stopped. James stepped into the plantation with one thought in mind, to take back what was stolen from him, to free Thomas and leave this God forsaken place never to come back. Every single one of the men guilty of touching Thomas was gone, even their memories were obliviated, James was sure of that. 

That chapter of their lives was over now, they could walk away from everything and start a new life. Oh, what a sweet dream was that. What a perfect ending for one of the books Thomas loved so much, but life wasn’t a romance and James knew they couldn’t possibly have their happily ever after, not after everything he had done and who he became, and yet, for now, he waited ready to push back the inevitable. 

Like a deer listening to the wind, Thomas turned and what James saw in his eyes made his heart burst with all the feelings he had tried to hide and forget during his long hunt for justice. The law of corrupted men judged them, James made sure to bring his personal brand of justice over them all. 

There was so much happiness in Thomas’ eyes and relief, but also fear, like Thomas couldn’t believe James was really there. James knew that feeling all too well. How many times did he wake up after a dream of their time together, sure that Thomas would be there, safe in his arms, only to realize, once again, that it all had been a trick of his mind? Did the same happen to Thomas? Did his love dream about James coming to rescue him? 

Then, a smile full of joy blossomed on Thomas’ face while his eyes grew brighter with unshed tears, and that was it. James couldn’t think anymore, all he could do was to take Thomas in his arms and accept the strong hug he received. To be back in those arms was heaven, it was coming home after too long. 

Thomas’ beard lightly scratched at his neck, it was good, it was different. They both were changed men, Thomas was once soft and clean, his face open and fresh, it was how James remembered him in his memories, when both of them still knew how to dream. 

When Thomas looked for his lips, unsure and shy like it was their first time, afraid that James could reject him after so long, the waves of memories came back to drown him. Gone were the smooth and full lips James remembered, now Thomas’ mouth was dry and chapped but the love behind the kiss, the affection luring in that small gesture boldly shared in front of everyone, was still present and the only confirmation James needed. Their mutual love was still there, stronger after being dragged into hell for so long. 

James wouldn’t pretend to know what those ten years did to Thomas’ mind, he wouldn’t disrespect his love thinking he knew what it felt for him to lose everything and be left alone to suffer, but that was the past and this was here and now, a present that James never thought he could have, the promise for a future he never dared to hope for. 

*** 

Walking away from Savannah and its soil drenched with the sweat and blood of the slaves forced to work and die there was a liberation. Everything was changing again for James and his crew, this time the Walrus would carry more than gold or fears, this time in its strong embrace, James would bring the most precious man God ever created. 

The closer they got to his beloved ship, the stronger the urge to take Thomas and disappear became. The darkness inside him wouldn’t stay put much longer, the monster he became when he had lost Thomas and then the only link to him, wanted out, it wanted to make sure that no one would ever take Thomas from him again, but at what cost? 

“We need to talk, Thomas.” 

His words sounded cold and detached even at his own ears and he saw Thomas retreat in himself even if his body didn’t move an inch. What had happened to a man who was once strong and proud, to react like that to mere words? James needed to know and at the same time, he dreaded the moment he would learn the truth. a moment that perhaps would never come if fate was really that cruel to force them apart once again. 

In the meantime, his crew vacated the deck. James was an enigma for his enemies, but it was good to see that his men knew when it was better to leave him alone and give him space. He cared for his crew in the measure his crew knew that betrayal would be paid in blood and misdemeanors were severely punished. He had skinned men alive with his whip for a such an offense, more than once, and he would be glad if he could keep himself from doing it again the first moment Thomas stepped on his ship. 

*** 

At first, James had thought to take Thomas below deck. The captain’s cabin had looked like the best place for the conversation waiting to happen, but the moment his eyes caught Thomas’ reaction to the sea and the games of light that the sun played with the pure water, James understood how much Thomas needed that.

The freedom, the fresh air, the unforgiving sun that could be both your best ally and a death sentence, the wind so dear to every sailor, respected and feared in equal measure. Thomas needed all of that almost as much as James himself. It was a call that could bewitch every man, hard to resist but also to accept. It was a hard life and James found himself praying to the gods of the Seven Seas that Thomas could accept the life the sea would reserve him. 

Like all those years ago in London, they were once again side by side and this time James didn’t refrain himself. He trapped Thomas in the iron vise of his arms and devoured his mouth in a hungry kiss that stole his breath and reduced his lover to a moaning and shivering mess.

If this was the only chance they got, James would do everything to make as many memories as possible to last him for a lifetime. He knew that memories, like ghosts, would just drive him crazy, it was a path he walked for the past ten years, but they were still better than nothing. 

Thomas’ hands grabbed his black shirt like it was an anchor. James could feel his body tremble in his own arms, and those long fingers claw at his shoulders. Thomas was as desperate as James felt and that was his cue to stop. Before things could escalate and he would lose control, the last thing James wanted was to let Thomas go, allow him to step away even for a few moments, but that had to be done. He couldn’t be the one hurting Thomas without permission, without Thomas knowing the depth of his perversion. 

Even when his mind was made up, James’ body couldn’t be parted from Thomas, James set him free from his arms, but his hands remained glued to his body, wrapped around his slim waist, too thin, yes, but with more defined muscles then Thomas sported in London, and he was well fit even then. 

Thomas tried to meet James’ eyes, he cupped his face in his hands and stroked his jaw with rough thumbs, but James was a stubborn man, ever so, and that didn’t change.“You are worrying me, James.” Thomas whispered, still stroking his skin. His hands were a bit cold, the breeze was growing stronger and the last hours of the day were approaching. 

James met his gaze only for a moment before he touched Thomas’ forehead with his own. It was a mistake. Like that, all he could see were his love’s swollen lips, still wet and glistening, red like ripe grapes and tasting even sweeter. He needed to focus, before his control, already stretched thin, would be lost for good. 

James took a couple of deep breaths, exhaling slowly. The ship was lulled by gentle waves that were calming and familiar. Thomas was always the one between them good with words, he was the one who always knew what to say. His charm was known in all of London. James was just the soldier, the one good for a fight but never good enough to address people about something important, and this was the most important speech of his life. 

Thomas smiled, a little smile that was only for James, a real one and James doubted anyone saw that kind of smile in the past ten years. “You know you can tell me anything.” 

That had been a constant truth in the past. Thomas was always there for him, to answer his questions and to make him see things he never paid attention to before they met. Thomas was open and ready to share his knowledge and his opinions, but what made Thomas one of a kind was that he never judged James, not even when he was insufferable and curt, too scared to face his own feelings, too scared by what those feelings could do to him and his career, to be polite. 

Was that still the truth, he wondered. For a man who always claimed the only time worth living was the present, he was referring to the past way too often. Past and future were things Captain James Flint couldn’t think about, but Thomas deserved a future after everything that was robbed from him. 

James could seem the one in command now, but it was Thomas who held the keys of his life. He was the one who could give him a future or condemn him to being trapped in the present he loved so much for the safety that it gave him. 

The hands around Thomas’ waist tightened. James needed the warmth seeping through the dirty shirt his love was still wearing. “I am changed. The man you knew and loved is no more. He died when he had lost you.” He pressed a finger against Thomas’ lips when they parted, ready to let out words, and shook his head. “He was a ghost, but when Miranda was killed, when the last bond he had with you died, that man became the monster you see now.” He saw Thomas bite his lip, his body tense under his hands. Oh how much he loved the fire that always burned inside Thomas. It was like seeing light after too long trapped in darkness to know that it was still there, that no one broke him enough to kill it. “There is a dark beast inside me now, one that I fed with the blood of the people who betrayed us and took you from me. There is no kindness left in me, it was burned away by the fire and hell that I raised. I burned them Thomas and everyone who dared to cross my path.” He saw understanding in Thomas’ blue eyes and sadness, but not an ounce of disgust. “The man I became, the man I am now doesn’t know how to love without owning. I need you under my control and command. I need to own you because no one touches what belongs to James Flint without dying. God, Thomas, now that I found you again I want to lock you in a golden cage and never let you go. I want you to never be free from me again.” 

James felt the moment Thomas went rigid in his arms. His body was tense, ready to spring away and hide, like a deer in a forest, but he stayed close to him instead. His labored breath brushed against James’ lips, warm and wet. 

Thomas was terrified, James knew it, and yet he was still there. He had expected many reactions in the short time he got to make up scenarios in his mind, but this one was the one he didn’t predict. It confused James. Thomas deserved so much more than a man so controlling, than to exchange one master for another. He knew Thomas would be safe and protected in the cage he wanted to build for him, but he was a slave for the crown for too long already, how could he even think about doing this to the man he loved so much? 

It was the monster speaking now, James wasn’t strong enough to fight him. In his twisted and derailed mind, James knew that all he wanted for Thomas was for him to be safe. He didn’t lie about that. No one touched what belonged to him without dying. Thomas would have never been safe, not even in London when he still had his name and title to protect him. Both had failed him, James wouldn’t. 

In his arms, Thomas was shaking now. Fear could be one of the reasons for his state, but under his hands, James could feel too many bones, barely covered by the light shirt Thomas still wore. 

The wind became stronger and cooler, and James didn’t want to make Thomas sick after he just gave him more emotional scars. Doing violence to himself and going after every instinct that screamed at him not to move, James stepped back and let some space between himself and Thomas. He couldn’t find the strength to let him go all at once, so he still had his hands around his waist. It was a slow motion to take his hands away. The moment it happened a cold James never felt before chilled him right through his soul. 

Life without Thomas had been unbearable before. The thought of failing him, of letting him fall victim to their enemies had haunted James down through the years, making him worse than a rabid dog. How was he supposed to survive now that he could lose Thomas once again, this time by his own doing?

*** 

Not even once Thomas looked at James while the captain led him below deck, he didn’t try to engage James in a conversation or dare to ask any questions. James wasn’t a man who believed in defeat without a fight, only this time he didn’t think he should fight at all. Now everything was in Thomas’ hands - he knew he owed at least this to his love - so he didn’t push. 

All too soon they stopped in front of a closed door and James pulled the handle, opening it for Thomas. 

The cabin was small and cozy. It had a bed and a small table right under a port hole big enough that the light could enter during the day. It wasn’t much but James knew what it meant to go from having nothing at all, to having something. This could be overpowering for Thomas. It had been for him when he first got a ship he could call his own. 

“No one will bother you here. Neither I nor my crew. You can lock the door and be by yourself.” 

That caused a reaction that James had expected, like the rage that it caused inside him. Thomas looked at him like he was talking lies. His blue eyes were wide open and pinned him to the spot with their intensity, daring him to say it again. 

“I will take you to the nearest port, or any port of your choice, and you’ll be free. No one will ever bother you again, Thomas, that’s my promise.” James continued before Thomas could open his mouth and speak. He needed to do this quickly, before his determination flew outside the window of the captain’s cabin and he became every ounce of the monster himself and the world already believed James to be. While showing that side of him to his enemies was never a problem before, to hurt Thomas was unthinkable, a sin for which not even the Devil himself would want anything to do with him. 

Watching Thomas walk away from his ship and his life, would kill him, James already knew this, but he meant what he promised. He would make sure to spread the word that Thomas was under his protection. He had many favors to collect and in order to protect Thomas from afar he was ready to burn them all.

They were still at the door, side by side, frozen in this moment that could be the end of everything, and neither of them was ready yet to break the heavy silence that fell upon them the moment James finished his piece. 

James wasn’t a saint. He had loved Thomas dearly, but now, to have him so close, after so long, too many needs and emotions awoke at once. He needed to put a distance between himself and Thomas before he dragged his love into his cabin and tied him to his bed, where Thomas belonged, at least in his mind. 

“Are there no other options, James? Have you already made up your mind?” 

“The only other option is for you to stay knowing what will happen. If you choose this option, you’ll be in my cabin when I’ll be back.” James indicated the engraved door right next to this cabin. “If you choose to stay, this cabin won’t be an option anymore. You’ll stay with me and won’t know any other bed but mine.” 

James’ sharp eye watched while Thomas nodded his head in acknowledgment. There wasn’t anything else to say, so James was ready to turn and go back on the deck when Thomas’ words filled the heavy and still air. 

“This cage you are talking about, will you be the only one with the key?” His voice was full of curiosity, like when they spent their evenings talking about literature and philosophy, when Thomas engaged him in conversation where their banter would be filled with shared opinions and very different perspectives. That was what made them good for each other. They came from different worlds, they had different experiences and grew with different beliefs, but to the core they were much the same. They wanted the freedom that their lives had always denied them, they wanted to do something for the world and the people who, unlike them, didn’t have a voice to be heard. They never tried to change each other but to learn from each other. 

James looked Thomas straight in the eyes, challenging him to look away first. “No one else will ever touch you again, no one else will ever even look at you, if you’ll be in my cage.” 

How could Thomas doubt it? After everything James just said, after what he was ready to do, how could Thomas think he would share his most precious possession with others? 

“Will you hurt me in this cage?”

On any other occasion, that would have been a hard question to answer for James. It would have called out a side of him that was always hidden but that he tried to keep a secret. Now he didn’t have such a luxury. 

“I would, and you’d learn to love every moment of it. It would be a constant agony for you, always so close to release but only allowed to find your pleasure when I’d say so. You’d learn how labile the line between pain and pleasure is. You’d depend on me for everything. Your pleasure, your pain, your whole life would belong to me.”

That was a lot to accept and digest. 

*** 

Thomas was alone and for the first time he didn’t know what to do with his freedom. It was such a strange sensation to have it and yet not to know what to do. In the past ten years his life was directed by someone else. He found a sort of peace in the schedule that was given to him. With someone else in charge he didn’t have to think about what he had lost and the betrayal that he had suffered. It was easier, a bit cowardly, but easier. 

Now he wanted to call James back, he wanted to talk more because those words should have been enough to send him running away, and yet here he was, in a cabin that the love of his life gave him even if it cost James his soul. 

Reading James was never hard. The man wore his heart on his sleeve. Oh, how many times Thomas had feared that such honesty, such beautiful naivity would have ended up in James being hurt and having his soul destroyed. He hadn’t been wrong even if he didn’t expect their life to be destroyed like this. 

After so long James was still easy to understand. Thomas had seen the moment the hidden part of his lover - he refused to call any part of James a monster - raised its head. He didn’t want to let him go and yet James had offered him a way out. 

Always the gentleman. James had waited for him to step inside the cabin before he closed the door. Closed but not locked, the key was on the inside like James had promised. It would take so little effort, just a small move of his wrist to turn the key and he would ban James from the cabin and his life for good. But did he want to do that? 

In all this time, Thomas had thought he had lost James and that thought had been torture. More than what was done to him in Bethlehem, more than what his so-called owners did to him in Savannah. 

He died every day a bit more thinking that James was gone, that he was taken from this world under the disgraceful accusation of plotting against Thomas to steal his wife. Now James was back in his life and he wasn’t ready to say goodbye. 

In his life as a free man, Thomas always knew what to do. In any occasion he had been proud to have the right answer, the right idea. Now he was free again and he didn’t know what to do with his emotions. 

His rational mind - one that Thomas wasn’t even sure he still owned - would have told him to lock the door and disembark as soon as possible, but his heart couldn’t stand the thought of leaving James willingly. 

In this state of emotional prostration Thomas knew he wouldn’t be able to make a decision, so he decided to explore the small cabin and what he found made him happy. There was a bathroom hidden by a curtain and inside there was a wash tub filled with steaming water. A piece of soap and some towels completed the sight that welcomed him. 

His ruined and dirty clothes were discarded as he rushed to finally get clean. Thomas couldn’t remember the last time the luxury of a hot bath was presented to him. He never thought much of that, too used to having what were simple amenities for him when he was in London. When even hygiene became a privilege he had lost with everything else, Thomas had started to realize how distant from the real world he had been. He prized himself as illuminated and open-minded but back then he was just a naive, stupid man who had thought he could change things from behind his desk. Look where that brought him, how much his ideals had cost the people he loved the most. Thomas’ greatest regret was the realization that what had happened to James and Miranda could have been avoided if he had only paid more attention, if he had kept things more private and didn’t trust men just because they looked like they could share his ideals. 

A deep blush colored his cheeks - that now burned like he spent hours working under the merciless sun of Savannah - when Thomas couldn’t contain a growl. The water felt so good against his skin, it was a blessing and a promise that things really had changed, that from now on, he could live his life like he wanted and not like other people demanded. 

Diving underwater Thomas closed his eyes and let his mind wonder. Water was such a huge part of James’ life now. Water was his freedom and his curse. It was peaceful and lethal at the same time. Everything was muffled: Thomas felt like nothing could hurt him there. He opened his eyes and watched while bubbles of precious air reached the surface after he opened his mouth and let it go. 

He resurfaced gasping for air, taking as much as he could in his burning lungs. Water splashed around him, making a mess on the wooden floor that probably wasn’t new to such treatment. Miranda would have been appalled if the same had happened to her marble floors in London. She had loved their house. It had been the first place where she had been free to express herself without being judged. She was the queen and ruled with an iron fist. It was rare not to hear her graceful laugh echoing along the corridors. Her voice had always sounded so happy when she could declaim poetries knowing that Thomas would follow her lead. They had happy, or at least he had hoped she was. She had deserved more than what he gave her. She had deserved better. 

When his racing heart and his labored breath were back under control, Thomas laid back and allowed his mind to focus on James. Thomas had loved Miranda and he had lost her. He had loved James and got him back. He still loved James with all his heart, those feelings never died and now they could be renewed, if only Thomas could find within himself the strength to make James his whole world. 

Once again Thomas closed his eyes and thought. He thought about the first time he saw James, and a small smile blossomed on his face. For a long time it was his belief that he had forgotten how to smile, another mistake he had made, one that he could fix, at least. 

He had loved James tenderly. The man was everything Thomas never thought he could have. So different from his peers, he was a breath of fresh air in his stale life. So put together, so perfect in many ways. looking at him was like watching a star burning with light and fire. There was a beast hidden under his uniform and his grades, a passionate creature made to be adored. 

Thomas had never found enjoyment in opium, like many of his friends and colleagues, but when he met James he had learned the meaning of addiction. He had hated how the drug seemed to cloud men’s minds, turning them into creatures he didn’t even recognize. With James his senses became enslaved. 

Hunger burned fierce behind his staged expression. Thomas saw it the first moment they met, but James wore an armor that kept him distant. Only when Thomas had kept pushing and pushing had he learned that what Thomas had believed was shame and a sense of wrongness that he had lived with for too long, was instead fear of losing control and hurting him. It had never happened, but the fear was there, all the time, and only now Thomas saw it never left. 

James had been everything to him in the past. He became his friend, his lover, his confidante. He was the one Thomas trusted above everyone else, together they dreamed of a better world, where mistakes and oppression could be fixed and defeated. Even in their past lives James was the one Thomas wanted to spend his life with. He didn’t know how and like the old fool he was, he had thought they had time to find a way, time to be together. 

After life took James from him, life gave him back a changed man, but so was Thomas. In its last attempt to hurt them, fate put James and Thomas back together. The armor was gone now, the beast unleashed and James wanted to hurt him, to control and own him. His former self would have been scared to death, Thomas was man enough to admit it. The Lord Hamilton would have tried to escape, he would have tried to compromise and find a way that would allow him to keep both James and his freedom and in the end - it made him sick to his stomach to think this - he would have ran away, because the thought of something so deep and everlasting like what James wanted, would have been enough to turn him into a coward. 

Things were different now. After he had spent the past decade as a slave, at the mercy of men who abused their power like only greedy and cruel people could, Thomas was a man broken inside and out. 

His body had endured so much, the abuse he had faced left scars and other marks on him. His mind had been torn apart and twisted so many times that some days, Thomas couldn’t even remember his name or what life was like before the mental institution. 

They had tried to make him believe that James and Miranda betrayed him, that what those men, hiding behind the title of doctors, were doing to him was punishment for his sins. They destroyed him enough that more than once Thomas thought about taking his own life. When the voice in his mind that sounded like James wasn’t strong enough to fight the doubts that their twisted words and actions put inside him, he had thought about ending the suffering once and for all, but he never could. In the end he didn’t want to prove them right, he didn’t want to let them believe they had won. 

They dared to touch his love for James, tried to turn it into something dirty and wrong, and he couldn’t allow them. He decided to fight, even if that had enraged them like Thomas thought. 

Now he was offered a way out from everything he knew. From both his lives, from James and what they could be for each other again. James was the only constant Thomas still had in his life. His lover knew the man he had been and was the only reason why he had survived the time they spent separated. He couldn’t bare the thought of dying, taking from the world the memories of James, and now he could be his present and future, too. He was offered a second chance to happiness and the price didn’t seem to be so high anymore. 

What was left for him in the world? Nothing. He knew that well. If he walked away now, leaving James behind once again, Thomas would be utterly alone and regrets, this time, would end up killing him. He had at the mercy of men who took everything from him and put shackles on him. This time it would be different, not just because James was nothing like those men, or because Thomas loved him, it would be different because Thomas would choose willingly to give himself to James. 

For once his mind, body and soul, all agreed on how his life should be lived from now on. it was like a weight Thomas didn’t know he was carrying was lifted from his shoulders. He could now breathe and felt more free than he ever was in life. 

Thomas took his time washing his body, enjoying the thought that no one would question the time he spent in the water. When he was ready to leave, he used the towels that were left for him and saw that there were clothes too.Simple but clean and comfortable looking, not really different from what James wore when they met again, only in a lighter color. 

He decided to put on only the shirt. With hot water relaxing his muscles and his mind free from stress and worries, Thomas just realized he was exhausted. 

Thomas reached James’ cabin moving like a cat in a dark alley and his hand shook while he touched the handle, a part of him sure that he would find it locked, that it all had been just a cruel joke but when he heard the telling click of an unlocked door, Thomas was free to breathe again. 

Once he was inside, the door closed behind his back, he felt safe and home. The room smelled like James, the familiar scent took care of the last remaining of the fears that had clouded his mind for too long. 

Following his instinct, Thomas crawled under the blankets on the huge bed and hid his face in what could only be James’ pillow, where his scent was even stronger and enveloped Thomas’ senses. He had no idea how long James would be busy, the thought of waiting for him formed in his mind but he was asleep the moment his body found a comfortable position.


End file.
